For at least several decades, there has been a well-circulated depiction of the Church's season of Advent as having two clear and distinct parts and, more challenging for priests and parishes, that the focuses of those two parts are to be kept separate. "The first 3 weeks of Advent are all about our anticipating the Second Coming of Jesus, and then only in the final week do we switch over and think about remember His birth in Bethlehem." So yeah, I wanted to preach on my reflection that this is, yes, built on some things that are true, but can be taken to extremes by some thinkers and liturgists, and is also impractical and kind of weird. (C'mon, how many 2nd Coming hymns do you know? Catholic hymns too, not Left Behind music.)
The one thing I forgot to mention in this recording is that in the Mass readings previous to 1970 all of the scriptures are focused on getting ready for meeting Jesus in this life, and yet nobody thinks that Pre-Vatican II Advent wasn't focused on Baby Jesus on Bethlehem.
